Adventures In Not Having His Foot In His Mouth
by Simply Sarah
Summary: Post- “The Power of Madonna.” Finn apologized to Rachel and Artie to Tina, but what about Puck to Quinn? Three ways Puck could have shown his appreciation for Quinn and the one way he did. P/Q oneshot.


**A/N:** Yeah, so I should be writing five different papers right now or at least working on the increasingly massive _Cheated Hearts_, but after last night's episode I couldn't resist quickly writing this.

It's short, which is a true miracle for me, but as _Cheated Hearts_ will be turning AU according to these new episodes, I really wanted to write something to address this new and unexplained Quinn/Puck we've been given. I had something in mind for last week's episode because despite the fact that Quinn kept an eye firmly on Finn throughout "Hell-o," I still found it to be full of Quick potential. But I had other things to work on last week and I still do this week, but after last night's episode and the even more potential we were given in Puck clearly being one of the guys who needed to make amends to a girl and us not getting a hint of him actually doing so, I just couldn't resist anymore.

**I hope you enjoy the story!**

**Disclaimer:** I don't own anything. If I did, one of the following moments would have been included in the episode somehow.

**Summary:** Post- "The Power of Madonna." Finn apologized to Rachel and Artie to Tina, but what about Puck to Quinn? Three ways Puck could have shown his appreciation for Quinn and the one way he did. P/Q oneshot.

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**Adventures In Not Having His Foot In His Mouth

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**1. Because **_**Prison Break**_** kicked ass **

They're supposed to be in the auditorium for rehearsal of "Like a Prayer" in two minutes, so of course Puck picks this moment to actually approach her in the hall for the first time since they started this… _thing_ they currently are.

He gets what Mr. Schue was saying and there was no way in hell he was singing about it like some girl, but he knew that doing nothing at all when all the other guys were seeking out and apologizing to the girls in their life from glee wasn't smart either. He probably owed this to Quinn anyway--- which didn't make it any damn easier.

He figures, screw timing, if he's actually going to follow through on this it's now or never (and never sounds pretty freaking appealing as she continues putting her things in her locker and doesn't look at him as he stands there, just waiting.)

She shuts her locker and, assuming he's just there to walk with her, concludes, "Okay, lets go."

(He almost wusses out here as she's turned her back ready to head the other direction and in doing so, giving him an out.)

He catches her arm, "Hold up."

She turns around, raises an eyebrow at him expectantly- but not expecting too much because she's trying to learn her lesson there.

He decides to bite the bullet and pulls an object from his back pocket and holds it out to her with a simple, "Here."

It's a paper flower. An iris made of white paper that appears to be painted pink. (She loves pink. She has no idea how he may have known that.)

"What's this?" she questions because she can't assume anything with him, even when she wants to.

He rubs a hand over the back of his Mohawk as he begins to explain uncomfortably and trying for casual, "Well you know the guys were talking about doing something good for you girls and Kurt said something about buying Mercedes flowers and I thought that's a really dumb ass move because flowers die. But then I remembered that guy from _Prison Break_ gave that hot doctor a paper flower because they can last as long as you want them. So I went to the library, looked it up on the web, and made you one."

As if telling her all that wasn't hard enough for him, he knows there are a few other things he really needs to say. He sighs and pushes on sincerely, "Look, I'm sorry. I've done a lot of stuff and said a lot of stuff that I shouldn't and I'm sorry." He reaches out and strokes the curve of her stomach (she's never offered so he's never dared to touch her like this before), where his daughter is in there somewhere beneath his finger tips and tells her honestly, "As much as I should be, I'm not sorry for everything though."

She glances away from him as she admits, "I can't honestly say I've felt the same." She's sixteen and pregnant, of course that's a regret and by the way he looks when she looks back up at him she knows he saw it coming. Glancing at the pink paper she's holding between her fingers she adds optimistically, "But maybe that can start to change."

He smiles at her, genuinely happy because he really wasn't expecting this to go anywhere close to well. Putting himself out there has never worked for him in the past.

They arrive late to glee rehearsal together and when she changes into their wardrobe she carefully tucks the flower between her folded clothes- careful to hide it to keep it to herself and not to damage it so it can continue to be as special as she knows it is.

Over the next few days she keeps hearing about some mess of paper left in the library and stolen art supplies. It makes her smile every time someone mentions it.

-o-o-o-

**2. Because all touching is good**

The first thing Puck notices in his quasi-relationship with Quinn is the complete lack of touching.

She only touches him when:

1. He's chatting up another girl and she'll pull him away (which gives him an extra good reason to flirt with other girls).

2. They're performing something in glee (he never thought he'd look forward to singing and dancing as much as he's starting to).

3. Or when she hits him for saying something stupid (that one, he could actually do without.)

So naturally he'd like there to be a great deal more touching in their relationship.

He knows he just can't get grabby on her, especially given that she's carrying his kid, but also because he knows all the crap the guys were saying in glee was technically true. He's got to go about this respectfully even if he has no idea what that means.

Then, after the weekend passes and it's another Tuesday that includes glee practice, he gets inspired as they're walking into school. He's been noticing lots of couples lately and he can distinguish them because they're holding hands. He's never gotten the whole hand holding thing. If he was going to be touching some part of a girl, her hand would be really far down on the list of parts he wanted to be touching. But if everyone else is doing it there's got to be some good reason, right?

So as they're about to head into the building, he takes Quinn's hand. He doesn't make a big deal out of it, just keeps walking, keeps his eyes front, like everything is normal. He catches her glance at their hands out of his peripheral vision, but she doesn't pull away and he takes it as a good sign.

He continues this throughout the day. He holds her hand every time he sees her between classes, during lunch, any time he can during glee practice, and as they walk out of school in the afternoon.

Then, as they're heading to his car in the parking lot, she slows so that he's sort of pulling her along. He looks back and she's glancing around, like she's making sure they're the only ones out here. When she's done with that she stops completely, dragging him to a stop. He turns and before he can question what's wrong, she kisses him (it's the first since the day he got her pregnant).

When she pulls away, she simply smiles, squeezes his hand a little, and continues with him on to his car.

He hold her hand as much as possible as he drives them home because he thinks everyone was on to something with this whole hand holding thing.

-o-o-o-

**3. Because talking seems to get him into trouble lately**

Lately, no matter what Puck says to or around Quinn, it seems to earn him a glare from her. Which, admittedly, is sort of hot, but really not ideal because it always seems to result in her keeping her distance from him as much as possible.

So when the guys talk about making things right with the girls and he knows he needs to make things better with Quinn, he doesn't even consider actually saying anything to her. If he talks to her he'd probably dig himself in a deeper hole and there's no way he's risking that. Then, taking into account that he's pretty sure Mr. Schue or someone mentioned making the girls feel better about themselves, he decides to keep it simple and just write a list of the things he likes about Quinn. It only takes him half a class period and when he's through he uses the bathroom pass to go to her locker and slip it inside before he can think much more about this and, as a result, probably screw it up.

----

Quinn opens her locker to a piece of paper falling out. She doesn't give it much consideration as she continues trading books before bending over to pick it up (an action which is getting harder lately). Holding her books against her chest, she opens it to see what it could possibly be and is surprised to find that the top of it reads, "Reasons why I like you more than other girls."

She hurries to her next class and eagerly unfolds the rest as she proceeds to read it and not listen to a single other thing going on. Very predictably of Puck (she never hesitated to think that it was from him and she's not sure where that faith came from) it's short and the first several items are body parts.

He lists her boobs, her boobs increasing in size over the last couple of months, her legs, her butt, her smile, her lips, her eyes, and her hair. Those came as absolutely no surprise to her. Although, she didn't think he'd list her breasts pre-pregnancy and during-pregnancy as two different points, but she supposes they are technically different.

Then, the list starts to get a little more unexpected as he wrote:

_9._ _You're smart, which I used to think was a really bad thing in a girl, thought it'd make things more difficult. But when you're right about something or saying something smart or outsmarting someone it's like…noticeable or something. It's good and I hope she's as smart as you._

Mentioning their daughter, they didn't really do that, especially not like this- not like she was really theirs, to keep and everything. But it doesn't make her feel bad or sad that she was mentioned. It actually makes her feel pretty hopeful as she reads on.

_10. You stand up for yourself and you do what you need to get what you want. _

_11. You can be both good and awesomely evil. _

_12. You're strong, probably more than you even know. _

_13. Even now, you protect and hold our daughter the best you can. I've been noticing it like all the time. You'll stand or sit or whatever and your arms will be around her, or your hands will be resting on her, and you're kind of holding her when you do- or protecting her when something weird is going down. And I think you'd be a good mom, if you want to be or when you want to be, because you already care so much to be like that with her. _

It ends at thirteen, which would feel completely unlucky if she could think about anything other than that last thing he liked about her. She's pretty sure he's right about what she's been doing with their daughter. It doesn't really make it any easier to decide what she's going to do about all of this, but it makes this day good and it makes her smile, and when she sees him it makes her say thank you and give him a soft kiss.

She doesn't mention the note to him because she's not ready to make any decisions yet, even if time is running out. He doesn't mention the note because he figures that a thank you and kiss was way better than how this would have gone if he said something to her directly and he's not going to press his luck by talking about them now. They're both happy to let the action create what goodness it will and leave all the rest for another time.

-o-o-o-

**4. Because even though it hasn't worked for him in the past, he's more into gestures than conversation (or, what he really does)**

Despite the speeches from Mr. Schue and some of the other guys, Puck really doesn't give a crap if most of the girls in glee feel bad about themselves. He barely talks to majority of them so it's not his fault. If they feel bad, that's some other guy's problem.

If Quinn is one of the girls that isn't feeling too good about herself, Puck's not sure that's his fault as much as other things and he's not sure there's much he could really do about it. He doesn't like what he knows she's got to be feeling and going through given that this is high school and she's pregnant and her parents abandoned her, but he's pretty sure there's no fixing those things either.

But after the guys talking about the mistakes they've made and thinking about the way Quinn's been looking at him lately, eyes full of unhappiness, he knows he's got to do something. So he thinks about them and this not-quite-a-relationship they're in. He honestly expected it to feel better to be with her (it certainly did that first time that led to her getting pregnant). But there's something off between them and it takes him a while, but he finally figures it out. She doesn't smile around him much and it seems like it's never because of him. And whether it was real or the fake kind she put on as a cheerleader, he remembers her smiling with Finn a lot. So when it comes down to it, his motivation for taking action and doing something to make her feel better is as much selflessly motivated as it is selfishly motivated because he really doesn't want to be the guy who never makes her smile.

He's completely horrible at planning, and really, thinking in general. He kind of needs things to inspire him and fall into place presenting him with opportunity. Luckily, that does happen for him this time just like it has before.

It's Friday night and he knows she's heard from the other girls in glee how they had guys apologizing to them, making nice gestures in all. She hasn't mentioned it, but he knows she knows and by her even cooler than usual demeanor has obviously concluded that he's not going to do a single thing for her.

He's not sure what he's going to do for her, but he wants to do something as quick as possible because they just drove all the way to their usual Friday night place for dinner and she didn't say a single word to him (which he likes a whole lot less than he thought he would). Then, as they're standing at the counter at McDonalds and she's ordering, inspiration finally strikes.

As soon as she's finished ordering her crispy chicken classic sandwich meal- the regular medium sized one- and the clerk turns to him he knows what he needs to do. He says it directly to the cashier, trying to make it seem like this isn't a big deal (plus he may wimp out if he looks at her). He orders, "I'll have a number one and you should go ahead and supersize her order. She's got eat enough for my daughter too."

The cashier upgrades the meal as asked, tells him the cost, and Puck follows through paying like this is just any other Friday night.

When the cashier hands Puck his change and steps away from the register to get their to-go order, Quinn asks keeping her eyes carefully front and resisting the smile starting to form, "Thought you didn't dig on fat chicks?"

He could say that she's not fat, she's pregnant, which he knows is true but it doesn't feel that honest. Even before he told her that about not liking girls carrying extra weight, he was pretty sure he could change his mind on that, just once at least. So he shrugs, glances over at her to find her meeting his eyes and offers, "I've been feeling like making an exception."

When she thinks about it later, he's kind of calling her fat, which is insulting and horrible. But she'll still smile when she thinks about this moment later, just like she does now. She smiles at him, and moves her hand on the counter so that her pinky's laying over his.

They stand there, continuing to wait for their one regular meal and one supersized. He ducks his head and smiles too. It turns out, making her smile didn't take much and it made him feel pretty awesome to be responsible for it. He thinks, he's going to have to start doing this more often. Maybe next time they come here he should add a milkshake or dessert to her order. Yeah, seeing her smile is definitely well worth the small cost.

**The End

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**A/N:** I hope you enjoyed reading this short fic compilation!

Thank you for reading and feedback in the form of a REVIEW would be much appreciated!

I hope everyone is having a wonderful week :D


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